Wrap up (Various)

[Anastasia]

I'm getting this started early with a chance for everyone to talk and get your exposition out of the way early. This can also be a chance to plan and talk amid yourselves, so please use it as you see fit.

The group that gathers in the war room is Afina, Jaela, Tryll, Calleigh, Surraruthru, Moore, Gisfal, Adrian and finally Hanna.

Adrian sits back, "Ithea's still on sabbatical in Brightwater," he annoucnes, "Otherwise, it's the generals. Tryll's here for his mental insight and presence on Afina's mission, while Moore and Surraruthru are here for insights they had for the Battle of Lethe. Finally, Hanna's here for a report on the effects of the Styx, recovering and long term effects of anathemic knowledge."

"First of all, our primary objective is accomplished," Gisfal begins, "The fey affected by the devil's poison have recovered. However, Lethe has proven to be a far harder target and there are several more disturbing implications. Jaela and Afina, if you'd begin by summarizing your operations and what happened?"

"In other words, we won," Adrian says, "Besides the diversionary attack, which proved to be stymied."

[Ebiris]

"Even if winning on the feint wasn't necessary, the ease with which we were parried is disturbing," Afina says, not knowing the full picture but certainly having heard enough from Tepen while doing her part. "As for our mission, yes. The information provided by Yian proved to be accurate and let us attack Willah where she was keeping Lief. The devils present were extremely well disciplined despite being on what looked to be an immensely dull and unsatisfactory guard routine. We were able to make holes in it and approach her castle undetected, but the open layout of the hallways within as well as the presence of massive numbers of erinyes manning the hallways meant stealth was no longer the best option.

"To be honest it felt quite nice to break loose, I killed almost all of the devils present with a single spell thanks to the unfortunate guard formation Willah had chosen, then we ravaged the castle with tornados and earthquakes while approaching the centre - unsurprisingly she was exactly there, a point for devil psychology. Without an army to bolster she proved little threat and was summarily subdued. Unfortunately Gathgorian was present, so our feint attack failed in regards to drawing him away. He didn't care to defend Willah either, which is interesting. I penetrated the laboratory where they were working on Lief and disintegrated his remains - I felt his soul pass on that point, and then we fled using walls and summons to slow Gathgorian long enough for us to leave the dimensional warding that shrouded the castle and gate back to Aurora just as what looked to be mass devil reinforcements were also gating into the area."

[Nephrite]

Moore raises a hand after Afina's explanation is done. "Do we have any reason to believe that what they did with Lief can't be reproduced with another fey?"

[Ebiris]

"There's no reason why they couldn't," Afina admits. "I intend to cover that in particular depth during Willah's interrogation. We can't really defend against it, but if the methods are reproducible... well, how will Hell manage when all of their barbazu fall sick and die on the lines of the Blood War? We have to show that any such attempts will be punished in ruinous fashion."

[Nephrite]

Moore nods. "I wasn't sure if there was something special about Lief or not, but it would serve them right to have this turned on them."

[Corwin]

"My team mostly dealt with fodder while mapping out the Styx tributary," Jaela says, once Afina addresses the immediate question. "When it sounded like things were going badly with the feint, I took us to regroup with the Aurora where we killed the leader of the assault and pushed them back. Another broke through the shield in the back and then managed to escape the defenders, which is troubling, but the rest of Lixer's elite opted to hide and send magic against us in futility."

She shrugs, spreading her arms. "I advised Gisfal to retreat, since we didn't really need to take Lethe and the weaponized form of Styx water was too much of a game changer for our regular troops. It's a shame that the diversion didn't seem to work, but we've had minimal casualties with a pretty damn high rate in our favor and tried out new tactics and command roles. I'm hoping that alone'll put us ahead in the game."

Jaela mulls over that for a bit, before continuing. "Then I took my team back to hunt down the portal for the Styx. We've actually identified several strategies and counters for dealing with its effects. Having a golem or elemental's biology is enough to stop the ill effects, for example, and elementary water and weather control spells affect Styx water just as well." She grins suddenly. "But enough about that! Sylvie finally cracked the whole thing. Turns out Lixer went crying to Daddy for help, so that's how the river got diverted to Lethe. And, uh, then we revealed its true form and put a finite wall in the middle of the infinite overlapping rivers and made a tactical retreat! Sylvie's busy calculating whether it's still there."

[Nephrite]

"For our part, although you may have heard most of this already, the attack on Lethe was stymied by the presence of Styx water. We can't be certain of someone was actively directing it or if it was simply present in the area, but as we neared closer to the battle it became much more prevalent and began to affect us more." Moore explains.

"It started to affect the magical protections as well, which was a larger concern. Surraruthru and I are of the opinion that anything that affects water, such as spells or even just something like a blizzard or strong wind, should affect that water as well, although we imagine the effect might be muted if it's being actively controlled."

[Iron Dragoon]

"I agree. Grisfal and Adrian both received my detailed report, but it was rather... galling... how passive their defense was. It's quite the advantage, and they deprived us of any knowledge of the active, deeper defenses of Lethe."

[Anastasia]

"Right now, we're investigating if it can be repeated. Early results suggest no, but we're still working on it and we're hoping Willah's interrogation sheds more light on it. The library group's theory is that Lief was the conduit, but something else was achieving the effect. If any fey could be used like that, it would've happened before. The fact that Lixer had a leaf that's allegedly from Yggdrasil supports the theory that he had some resource or edge to get it done, maybe a piece of Yggdrasil." Adrian says all that and rubs his forehead, "Days like this make me wish I was still a guard."

"I wonder why Titania or Oberon didn't take stronger measures," Hanna says, "They were either unaware or willing to allow Aurora to solve the problem." She sits, a light scowl on her face. "I suspect this may have been a conflict on levels above our own, and we were the pieces in play."

"The more important incident right now is Lethe. I chose to retreat because our troops were being affected fast and there were signs of serious resistance if we attempted to push through it. I wasn't going to gamble Aurora's forces on an unknown situation like that. Mirima was affected and if she could be affected so quickly, any of us could be." Gisfal says, "As much as we want to hurt Lixer, my opinion is that Lethe is too much for Aurora to handle as is. That's even more galling, but we have higher priorities than Lethe. What of Lifasa if we waste our strength assailing Lethe for little gain?" Here the eladrin waves his hand, gesturing sharply, "Tempus teaches us that there is no glory in a battle best avoided."

[Nephrite]

"Considering it was Mount Celestia that effectively told us to solve the problem, I think you're right, Hanna." Moore says with a nod in her direction. "I don't think we'd be able to get answers as to the 'why' on that although I can certainly try to ask."

[Corwin]

"Oh, I'm pretty certain it was directed," Jaela tells Moore. "Those sorts of waves don't happen normally, and if they did they wouldn't get dispelled." At Gisfal's words, she shrugs. "We don't really need to hit Lethe with Aurora. Let's focus on interrogating Willah and helping those still affected recover fully." Directing the question to Hanna, she asks, "Do you have it in hand or need help there?"

[Anastasia]

"You usually don't," Hanna concedes to Moore. "Have faith."

"We have it in hand, it's just going to take time," Hanna says to Jaela. "We're estimating a week, give or take depending on Lady Luck's whimsy."

As you walk, Elena pops in, "Hi," she says, "Sylvie got wind of this and she'd like to present some findings on that river as well as possibly 21."

[Corwin]

"Glorious! Can you ask her over? And Morniel, if he's around?"

[Anastasia]

"Sure!" Elena agrees, vanishing. Sylvie and Morniel soon arrive, the latter saying, "You summoned me?"

[Corwin]

"Yeah, I wanted to ask your opinion on something, but first there's Sylvie's findings. You'll probably want to hear them too."